334 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



tions. Then, when it was nearly evening, she made up her mind to 

 dig one of the withered plants. She had four digging sticks with her. 

 One of them was peeled in places (for ornamentation), and its pointed 

 end was painted red. With this she dug up the earth around the root 

 and loosened it. She pulled it out and to her surprise there was a 

 hole through. She looked down. Then she saw this earth as it is, with 

 camps and tribes in different places. "I wonder where I belong, to the 

 east or west ?" said the woman with the young child on her back. Then 

 she knew that her place was in the west. She put the root and the loose 

 earth back into the hole and went home. As the men were always 

 killing buffalo for food, she had many hides to prepare. After scraping 

 them, she softened them on a rope of sinew. The old man made these 

 ropes of sinew for his daughter-in-law to work with. She showed him 

 those that she had worn out in use. Then the old man made others 

 for her. Again they went out to hunt. Then the woman thought she 

 had enough sinew. She took her digging sticks, the sinew, and her 

 child, and went to where she had dug up the withered root. Then she 

 knotted the sinew together. She took out the root and dug the hole 

 larger. She made it as large as her body. She laid the digging sticks 

 across the hole, having tied the sinew to them in the middle. She tied 

 the sinew about herself under the arms. She held the boy on her back 

 in her robe. She had the sinew coiled in the most convenient way. 

 Then she slowly lowered herself by uncoiling the sinew rope. She 

 got as far as half the height of a cottonwood tree from the ground. 

 Then she could go no farther. She had reached the end of the sinew 

 rope. When her husband returned, he asked where his wife was, and 

 was told that she had gone out to dig. Then the two brothers went 

 out, the moon to the west, and the sun to the east. The moon found the 

 hole, looked down, and saw his wife hanging. He went back and 

 got a stone as large as her head. He brought it to the hole. Four 

 times he motioned with it and spat on it, and said : "Not to my 

 boy, but to my wife! When you strike her head, let tTie sinew rope 

 break!" He let the rock drop, and watched it fall on his wife's head. 

 When the stone hit her, she fell to the ground ; the man prayed that 

 the boy should not be hurt. They fell near a river, and the boy was 

 not hurt. Among the trees near the river was a tent, where an old 

 woman live alone. One day she had gathered berries and brought them 

 to her tent. She went out to find a stone with which to beat the berries. 

 She went to the edge of the bank where it was rocky. Then she heard 

 a child crying not far away. "What can it be?" she wondered. She 

 went on and again she heard the crying. To the west of her a child 



